


Under This Roof

by Squishy_TRex



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Married Life, Pregnancy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:16:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9150373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squishy_TRex/pseuds/Squishy_TRex
Summary: “You think our kid’s gonna like the beach?” Raleigh asked.Mako pondered the question for a moment as she also turned her gaze back to the roiling waves beating against the sand. She could see a future, where they took their son down to the shore, sun shining brilliantly, his laughter bubbling up as the waves crashed against his ankles. Where they could lie on the sand, relaxing without thinking of what dangers could rise to the surface.“I hope so,” she responded. “He deserves to.”





	

The rhythmic sound of light rain steadily spattering against the roof woke Mako from a dreamless sleep.

Before even thinking of it, her hand went to her swollen stomach. Fingertips pressed against the stretched skin, she breathed in and out to center herself, and waited to feel it. After a few seconds, a soft kick answered against her palm. Staring up at the blank ceiling, Mako felt her face split into a smile as a wave of relief broke over her. Only three months left to go.

It had taken a long time for them to even think of having a baby in their lives and even longer for one to be possible. All their time and efforts had been pushed straight into rebuilding after they closed the Breach that there was no room for anything else. Fighting the kaiju together was the easy part, living together, and wanting to be a family, was harder.

Mako carefully pushed herself up from the bed, leaning back against the several pillows her husband had arranged for her last night. Blinking back the last dregs of sleep, she found herself ready to reach over and shake him awake, pulling his own hand to her stomach, to feel their son’s movements together.

But when she looked over at his side of the bed, it was empty. Only a shallow indentation was left behind that indicated he’d ever been there. Mako frowned, knowing her husband wasn’t an early riser. Her eyes drifted over to his nightstand and caught sight of the date projected by his clock. And, as she realized what today was, her face softened.

It was the anniversary of the day Raleigh Becket piloted Gipsy Danger by himself to the Alaskan shores.

The day he watched and felt his brother get ripped away from him in the span of seconds.

Feeling a painful tug in heart like an anchor being dropped, Mako moved out of the bed as quickly as she was able, grabbing a knitted shawl to wear over her nightclothes.

Padding down the hallway, hand resting on her pregnant stomach more out of habit than comfort, she looked for Raleigh throughout their house. They wanted somewhere quiet, when the world was done with them. It was small, just big enough for them and their new addition, but with the lights still out and the absence of any sound, it seemed much bigger than it was.

As she moved towards the front of the house, the sound of falling rain grew louder, almost like the sound was now coming from inside. Mako frowned, and just as she turned the corner into the kitchen, a gust of sea-salt wind, wet from rain swept through. Tugging her shawl closer, she stepped forward to see the sliding glass doors just past the kitchen were open. Crossing over cool linoleum, noting the tea kettle out next to the stove, she quietly passed through the open door onto the veranda.

And there he was, back to her as he leaned against the railing, veiled from the rain, but dark blonde hair still matted and messy, dressed only in worn pajama pants and a white muscle shirt, the tension in his body unmistakable. A tiny smile passed over her face, edged with the sadness she knew he was feeling. There hadn’t been any Ghost-Drifting last night, but over their years together, even though they came and went, she stopped needing them to feel what he was.

“Found you,” Mako said, as she came up beside him, hoping she could ease some of his strain with light words and her presence. In her worse moments, they had sometimes been enough.

He turned to her, shoulders dropping as he relaxed slightly, and gave her a crooked smile.

“Didn’t know I was missing,” he said in the playful voice she loved, reaching with one big palm to pull her close and kiss the top of her head. “Mornin’.”

His voice was still rough and, pressed up against him, arm easily going around his waist, she could feel the rumble of his chest and breathed in the musky scent of his skin. She sighed and let herself lean into him, her head resting again a broad shoulder. In return, he carefully squeezed her closer and dipped his head to nose at her hair.

As she looked out past the veranda, taking in the view of the beach not more than a hundred feet away, its shallow blue-grey waves lapping against the shore, the rainy wind swirling towards them gently, she felt her heart swell in happiness. At just being here, in this place, this moment, with the man she loved and the child she couldn’t wait for.

“I always forget how beautiful it is out here,” Raleigh said, echoing Mako’s thoughts. He pressed a soft kiss into her hair, disrupting her bangs with a whuff of breath when he pulled away. She tilted her head up to see his face and caught him looking at her, an unshakable sadness in his eyes.

“Raleigh…”she started, but quickly pressed her lips together, unsure of how to continue. It was easy in the Drift, even if it didn’t start that way. After so many years of feeling and bearing each other’s pain, words weren’t often needed. But that never stopped her from wanting to say the right ones.

Mako watched him sigh, felt the exhale against her own body. He turned his face back to the ocean like he was searching for something, but she looked at him for a little bit longer, knowing whatever was out there she didn’t need.

“This beach reminds me of the one I landed on,” Raleigh said quietly. Mako was silent, but pressed closer to her husband, turning her face back towards the view. They had moved into this house little under a year ago under a shared desire to stay near the ocean. A final act of defiance towards the kaiju that had taken so much from them.

“I don’t think I ever told you that,” he continued. He said it almost as an apology, but one he wasn’t sure how to make.

“You did not have to,” Mako responded. And the shudder she felt didn’t come from her.

So much was shared between them in the Drift, all the things they otherwise would have hidden. She was grateful for it.

Mako had seen the Alaskan beach, the snow blowing through its icy sea wind, felt the aching pain of a bloodied wound, the mental pain of losing a co-pilot, a brother. The overwhelming fear of being alone and agony of unimaginable loss had flooded her senses more than one night in a row.

Just as many nights where Raleigh woke up and held her close, having seen her wandering through the wreckage of Tokyo, with only her blue coat and single red shoe.

After all, the amount of times Mako lived through one of Raleigh’s worst moments had to be equal to the amount of times he lived through hers. Their pain was as intertwined as their love, his snow on the beach mingled with her ashes in the city.

“I know I don’t talk about it,” Raleigh said, the start of a long explanation he thought was needed.

She calmly pressed her left hand over his heart, curling the fingers into the soft fabric of his tank top.

“When you want to talk, I am always listening,” she replied quietly. “But you never have to. Not with me.”

One of her husband’s calloused hands covered the one she had over his heart.

“How are you so amazing,” Raleigh said, his favorite rhetorical question. Mako huffed out a laugh through her small grin.

“Lots of practice,” she teased, craning her head to look up at him.

His face broke out in the crooked smile she loved so much before he leaned down to kiss her. They came apart gently and he pressed his forehead to hers for a moment before completely pulling away and looking back out at the view.

“You think our kid’s gonna like the beach?” Raleigh asked.

Mako pondered the question for a moment as she also turned her gaze back to the roiling waves beating against the sand. She could see a future, where they took their son down to the shore, sun shining brilliantly, his laughter bubbling up as the waves crashed against his ankles. Where they could lie on the sand, relaxing without thinking of what dangers could rise to the surface.

“I hope so,” she responded. “He deserves to.”

A soft kick in her abdomen caused Mako to gasp softly.

“What is it?” Raleigh

She responded by bringing their joined hands to lightly rest against the curve of her baby bump. They only had to wait a few seconds before another kick came.

Raleigh shook his head.

“Never fails to amaze me,” he said reverently.

“Have you thought any more about names?” Mako asked.

He squeezed her close. “Is Raleigh Jr. still on the table?”

“Absolutely not,” she countered immediately.

“Then, no, I haven’t.” He sighed. “Honestly, I’ve been coming up empty on anything that feels right.”

Mako shifted against him, turned her eyes down to their hands, still resting over where their child was. So close and after so long, still unbelievable. He was going to be a new chapter in their life, one where they weren’t Jaeger Pilots, just two people who wanted a life away from the kaiju and everything they’d taken.

Everyone they’d taken.

“What about Yancy?” she ventured carefully.

Raleigh pulled his hand away from hers and Mako felt her heart drop. But it was only to cup her face and lift her to look up into his overjoyed one.

“Yeah?” His voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Yeah,” she said, nodding. Mindful of her stomach, he turned her fully towards him for an embrace, his face buried in her shoulder.

“I was afraid to ask,” he confessed.  She tilted to press a feather light kiss against his neck.

“Yancy Becket,” she murmured, the name feeling right when she said it out loud.

“Yancy Stacker Becket,” Raleigh corrected when he pulled back. His eyes were impossibly warm as they looked into hers.

Without thinking about it, Mako reached up to drag him into a deep kiss, as the rain continued to patter against the house and the waves crash against the beach. And not since the last kaiju they fought or since they left the PPDC, since he asked her to marry him or when they discovered they were having a son, could she remember feeling so whole.

**Author's Note:**

> Raleigh to his son, probably: Yancy Stacker Becket, you were named after two of the bravest men I knew who weren't afraid to kick my ass.


End file.
